


How Steve got his hug and kept it

by sirona



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coda, Episode Tag, Hugs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-11
Updated: 2011-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-19 06:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirona/pseuds/sirona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve needs a hug, even if he doesn't want to admit it. Coda to 1.23.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Steve got his hug and kept it

**Author's Note:**

> Written for delicatale's awesomesauce [hug meme](http://delicatale.livejournal.com/51222.html). There is a gorgeous coda to this [over here](http://delicatale.livejournal.com/51222.html?thread=1070614#t1070614), written by perspi.

Steve will never admit, on pain of death, that he's so jealous of Danny hugging everyone in sight that sometimes he can't actually see straight. Gracie is okay; Danny can hug her all day long, Steve wouldn't mind. Steve loves the hugs Gracie bestows on him, sweet-smelling little girl holding him so trustingly. He'd do any number of things to keep her safe, up to and including various acts of violence.

But when Danny walked through the office door and into Kono and Chin's arms, Steve will admit to feeling a little peeved. And when Danny hugged Jenna--okay. Steve likes Jenna, he really does. She's smart and tough and a bit of a dork at times, it's adorable--but, just, NO. How come _she_ gets a Danny hug and Steve doesn't?? Steve is prepared to sulk for some time to come. He can't stand it; he heads over to them with the express intent of putting an end to this torture.

And then Danny walks up to him, and Steve tries not to look too desperately hopeful, tries to bluster his way through the sudden need clawing at his chest. And then Danny's arms are wrapping around him, the firm weight of Danny's body sinking into him, and he closes his eyes and clings, just a little, just enough for Danny's warmth to start thawing the block of ice inside him that has been aching all day.

...He is seriously going to shoot Sang Min one of those days, he swears.

\---

He can't stop thinking about it. It's like Danny has left an imprint behind, and now Steve's arms feel perpetually empty, like something's missing in the space between them. He watches Danny's body greedily, thinks about all the times he has felt those shoulders under his hands, wants to sneak his arms around them and never let go.

It's confusing, and wrong, and it's starting to impair his judgement; his arms twitch every time Danny draws near enough to touch, and worst of all, Danny has started to notice something's up with him. He hasn't said anything yet, but Danny's no fool, and whatever he says, he has faces too, faces Steve has learned through trial and error to read like an open book. Danny is watching him, and he's not going to stay quiet for long.

\---

Two days later, Friday evening on the beach behind casa de McGarrett, Steve is not as fast with his avoidance tactics as by right he should be, and Danny notices the way Steve's arms jerk behind his back when Danny brushes a shoulder against them on his way past. Danny being Danny, he grabs a good hold of Steve's shirt and just tows him behind on his way inside the house, leaving Kono and Chin to chill on the lounge chairs.

"Okay, Rambo, what the hell is going on with you?"

Steve opens his mouth.

"Do not even _try_ to tell me you're fine, you've been acting weird ever since..." Danny stops talking. This is dangerous territory. Steve takes a careful step back, pulls his arms behind himself and leans against the counter, traps them there with his body so he won't haul Danny in, get a hold on him and embarrass himself when Danny tries to make him let go and Steve can't.

Then again, if Danny pushes him away, he might just go without a fight, because Danny would have made it perfectly clear he doesn't want him -- why should he, anyway, Steve's so far from perfect that he can barely see the shore--

Danny's suddenly in front of him, hands braced over Steve's shoulders. "Stop," Danny says quietly, and just like that, Steve's mind goes quiet, calm, restful. He blinks, but the noise refuses to come back.

Danny watches him for a moment, and then he slips his arms slowly, carefully around Steve's shoulders, giving him time to move away if he wants to--Steve would weld himself to the spot if he could. He makes a noise in his throat that he would admit to even less than the need to be hugged by Danny -- a small, broken thing, desperate in its need. He clutches at Danny tightly, so tight that Danny lets out an answering noise of protest but makes no move to pull away.

"Danny," Steve whispers soundlessly, small, pathetic, he is such an idiot, Danny's going to laugh him off the island--

"You're thinking again," Danny muses tightly, with what little breath Steve has left him. "I said stop it."

It takes a long, long time for Danny to speak again. Steve thinks he hears footsteps out back and the sound of a car engine catching, the faint roar of Chin's bike as it pulls away before Danny's voice brings him back from whatever place in his head he's retreated to.

"You do know--no. Tell me. Tell me you know that you can get this any time you want. Any time, Steven. You don't even have to ask. You can get a hug whenever you need one--you know what? No. I forgot whom I was speaking to. Repeat after me: I will ask Danny for a hug when I want one."

Steve stays quiet, but smiles tentatively into Danny's neck. Danny uses his bulk to shake him a little, but he's not pulling away. "Say it, McGarrett, go on. I. Will..."

"I will ask you for a hug when I want one," Steve rumbles obediently, and if his voice is a little quiet, a little mistrustful, Danny doesn't mention it.

"Yes. You will, if you know what's good for you," Danny says instead. "Don't make me surprise-tackle you when I think you need it. Although..."

"All right, all right," Steve laughs, presses his nose to the warm place behind Danny's ear, breathes him in. "I promise I'll ask."

"Doesn't mean you're off the hook about surprise cuddle attacks if and when I think you're being an idiot again," Danny warns, and settles himself further into Steve's arms. Steve squeezes him a little tighter, all sorts of scenarios going off like fireworks in his mind. All of a sudden, the future looks bright with possibilities.

 

 **Sometime later**

Steve knows that Danny's behind him. He knows, because Danny has been one step behind him the whole day, all the way through the case from hell and the epic fallout afterwards (the governor had not been gentle). Still, all this time, he'd felt the warmth of Danny's body, close but not touching, just when he's been needed.

Steve hasn't forgotten the promise Danny extracted from him a couple months back, and if ever he's been in need of a hug, it's now. And he hates himself that he can't ask for it, can't let himself get any more vulnerable than this case has already made him, even if it's to the one person he does not mind being vulnerable in front of. He trusts Danny more than he's ever trusted anyone in his life, trusts him with his whole being--and it's moments like this when he loathes his SEAL training with all his heart--that little voice in the back of his head that tells him he can never let go, he has to tough it out, no matter what, not even when he _wants_ to stop.

Danny is going to be so angry with him, _so angry_ , Steve _promised_ him, he said the words, and now it's like he's going back on it, and it's completely killing him. He can sense Danny hesitating by the door, and he wants nothing more in the world than to turn and go to him, but he can't make himself move, can't open himself up to rejection like that, take the risk of Danny telling him to fuck off, because he doesn't know if he can put himself back together again if that happens. It is the most horrible feeling in the world, this push and pull of need and must not.

So it comes as a complete and utter shock when Danny's warm body presses all along his back and long, muscled arms wrap around him snugly, pulling him back into Danny's chest. Danny pillows his cheek on Steve's shoulder and stays there, holding him, while Steve is frozen in place and indecision. He thinks back to Danny's threat of surprise cuddle attacks when he thinks Steve's being an idiot, and he feels something unwind inside him, something in the region of his spine that has been keeping him rigidly still all day. He slumps against Danny's body, defeated by the simple kindness, by how much this man _cares_. It's mindboggling what he's done to deserve it, but there it is, freely offered. A huffed laugh escapes his mouth at the thought that this is now Danny's way of telling him he's being an idiot. It's a marked improvement on ranting, although he's kind of happy to know there will still be rants aplenty in his future.

"Jesus, you'll be the death of me one day," Danny sighs, tightening his arms. Steve turns around and brings his own around Danny's lean body, crowding him until there's barely a wisp of air between them. He turns his head into Danny's neck, breathes in the familiar, comforting smell, lets it unwind the tension in his own body further, until he's almost slumped in Danny's arms.

It's a good thing the sofa in his office is close by, because now that he has Danny in his arms again, he's not letting go any time soon.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Weeks That Follow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/209615) by [perspi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perspi/pseuds/perspi)




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